Computerisation of hospitals: 4 yrs on,state

However,medical colleges in Pune,Nagpur and Aurangabad have been tied up with JJ hospital for sharing of information till now and the project is being tried out at hospitals in Dhule,Kolhapur,Nanded. The project is also being implemented at St George,GT and Cama hospital in Mumbai,which are part of the JJ group of hospitals.

“It is my opinion that the project is not feasible. There are glitches in implementation of the project. Currently,four medical colleges are connected with JJ Hospital and extending it to other colleges doesn’t seem feasible anymore,” said Minister for Medical Education Dr Vijaykumar Gavit.

The contract given on a build-operate-repair basis for eight years was awarded to the Cochin-based Amrita Technologies and Hewlett and Packard (HP); wherein the software support is extended by the Amrita Technologies and the hardware comes from HP. The project had an initial allocation of Rs 150 crore from the state plan budget in 2007 and an additional allocation of Rs 93 crore was made in 2009.

Dr Gavit added: “The contract has been signed with two companies. We will have to legally review what can be done regarding that if we have to stop the project. We will also have to take a decision whether we want to continue the linkages at the four medical colleges connected at the moment,” said Gavit.

Dr Gavit said considering the footfall in JJ Hospital for OPD,it had become time consuming to register the medical records for every patient. The doctors and staff take more time to record the medical details of the patient on a computer than they usually do with hand.